Although qualified 11th and 4th at the finish of this 2016 French Grand Prix, Dani Pedrosa is not delighted and has no illusions about the current potential of his Honda. Like his teammate Marc Marquez, he suffers from a lack of traction when exiting a corner and explained this by inviting the journalists at 16:30 p.m. for a debriefing in the gigantic HRC hospitality.
We offer you a translation of his entire remarks.
Dani Pedrosa: “a very difficult race, because the objective is to be in the leading group. And it's very difficult to be in the lead group when you have a bad qualifying, so... I say the same thing every race, I try my best in every qualifying, but it seems like the harder I try , and the more the worse (disillusioned laughter). So I'm going to try to be more relaxed for the next qualification to try to be more towards the lead.
It's very important to start from the first positions because many drivers are able to do a fast first lap, but then the pace in the race is not the same for everyone. So I started behind drivers even though I was faster than them in the race.
Unfortunately, when I started, there wasn't good grip, I felt that the track wasn't good, my tires weren't ready. I tried to attack but went wide many times. In front of me, there were the two satellite Yamahas and the two Suzukis, and at each corner exit I lost 2 or 3 tenths in acceleration. I could gain a lot of time braking, but it felt like elastic.
When the bike's tank started to lighten, and the grip or feeling of security became better, we were already on the 10th lap, a large part of the race and it was already drawn. Closing the gap with the lead was then almost impossible.
I then made some aggressive overtakes because I was losing so much coming out of the corner that I wasn't close enough to overtake, and I lost a few more laps because of that.
Then I think my pace was similar to Rossi's, and even faster for a few laps, but it was already too late.
A positive point is that I was able to set consistent times from the 10th lap until the end, without falling today, while the track was... let's say critical. »
Many riders have crashed while losing the front…
“I had chosen a different front tire than them. A little more tender. I struggled a little at first with a full tank but ultimately I didn't crash so...
Part of the race is finishing it…
Maybe that's one of the reasons, I don't know.
It's not just the Hondas that have fallen. After the Moto2 race, I had no grip at the start and everyone in front of me was faster. I was losing out on corner exits and I couldn't brake hard with a full tank like I did at the end because it was slippery. Then I saw the falls and I was obviously careful but my pace remained constant. »
Can discussions outside of the race affect your concentration?
“Of course, it’s not ideal (laughs). It's not like your mind is only tuned for racing. I can't lie but it's time, and there's nothing I can do about it. »
At this moment the conference in English was abruptly interrupted to move on to questions in Spanish…
